But, as ReadWriteWeb editor Richard MacManus discussed in "5 Ways that Paper Books are Better than E-Books," everything from price to packaging to, most importantly, the feel of physical books may keep them on the shelves for a long time to come. Now, in a study called "Student Attitudes Toward Content in Higher Education," another round in the debate has been settled on the side of paper. 75% of student preferred old-fashioned, paper-and-board textbooks over electronic versions.

Additional findings:

• Students love a bargain. Survey respondents said they often buy previous editions of a textbook (16% did this for their current class ) or international versions (18% did this at least once).


• Piracy is pervasive. More than 40% of survey respondents said they bought a textbook from a pirate website, or know others who have. In addition, many respondents reported copying their friends' textbooks.


• Some learning tools have high value. Print study guides, Campus Learning Management Systems -- such as Blackboard and WebCT -- and diagnostic self-tests held high value for survey respondents.


• Some learning tools have low value. Online tutoring, audio study guides and "clickers" used in the classroom by instructors held low value for survey respondents.

The 12% who did favor e-textbooks -- "mostly males, and often MBA-seeking or distance learners" -- said they valued the "lower cost, convenience and portability."

Textbook photo by Nina Scaletti | other sources: ResourceBlog

The 2010 report was recently released by EDUCAUSE, a non-profit organization that supports the advancement of technology in higher education. The report is based on a survey from the spring of 2010 of over 36,950 freshmen and seniors at 100 four-year institutions and students at 27 two-year institutions.

EDUCAUSE has been conducting these surveys for almost a decade now, so the results offer an interesting look at how students' attitudes to technology have changed - and haven't changed - over time. Consistent with previous years, for example, about half the respondents say they consider themselves to be mainstream adopters of technology. But about half of the male respondents see themselves as early adopters while only a quarter of females described themselves that way.

For the past four years, the percentage of respondents who own computers has stayed roughly the same: around 98%. But desktop ownership has declined by more than 25% over that period, with laptop ownership increasing accordingly. In 2010, 89% of students said they owned either a laptop or a netbook. More than half of respondents said their computers were less than a year old.

Despite the prevalence of laptops, eReaders have yet to make much in-roads with the college set, with only 4% owning a dedicated eReader. But two-thirds of the respondents say they own an Internet-capable handheld device.

Students' Use of Technology (For Social Networking, Not for Studying)

Students report they use technology primarily to study. OK, not really. Communications - especially via text-messaging and social networking - is the primary usage (and daily usage) of technology.

96% of students said they were on Facebook. 23% said they were on MySpace. And of students active in social networking, fewer than 7% said they had no restrictions as to who could see their online profiles. 59% of women and only 40% of men said they'd put some restrictions in place as to who could view their social networking information.

Dissatisfied with Learning Management Systems, Students Turn to Social Networking to Collaborate

Despite the very high percentage of students who said they use social networking for personal reasons, very few said they use these sites as part of their coursework. Only 3 in 10 said as much, most of whom said they did so to collaborate with fellow students in their classes. Only 8% of respondents said they used social networking sites to interact with their instructors.

When asked if they would like to see more social networking in their classes, slightly more than 25% said they would.

And while 90% of institutions said they used online Learning Management Systems, students' participation was not that high. While most students said they had used an LMS at some point, only two-thirds said they were using one during the semester when this survey was taken. And their experience was not positive. Over the last few studies that EDUCAUSE has undertaken, the percentage of respondents who feel positive or very positive about the LMS experience has dropped from 77% in 2007 to 51% in 2010.

In terms of other technologies being used by students, 36% said they used web-based productivity tools like Google Docs, 12% said they used blogs, and only 4% said they used microblogging services like Twitter in their courses.

As far as how their college experience is preparing them for their future technology usage, slightly fewer than half of the students agreed with the statement "By the time I graduate, the IT I have used in my courses will have adequately prepared me for the workplace."

Great as all this sounds, the trend towards online learning raises the question of just how effective online education is compared to traditional education. According to a recent study conducted by SRI International for the US Department of Education, online learners perform slightly better than students in traditional face-to-face classrooms. The study analyzed research that compared online and conventional learning at institutions of higher education and in K-12 settings between 1996 and 2008.

A key finding of the report is that students doing partial or all course work online rank, on average, in the 59th percentile, meaning better than 59% of all those who were scored; whereas students in traditional classrooms ranked in the 50th percentile. Though this significant difference doesn't quite mean the end of institutional schools, it will help put an end to the myth that online learning is inferior to traditional learning. It will also help foster greater interest in developing technology geared specifically to education. No doubt, we will see online schools for K-12 pop up everywhere.

Already a giant in online university degrees, Kaplan has begun offering programs for students in grades 6 to 12, tailored to each learner. The company also runs the Kaplan Academy, a tuition-free online public high school available in six states. Kaplan has over 70 years of experience in distance learning and will likely see its numbers soar as more students (supported by their parents) opt for non-traditional schooling, in the hope of improving their chances of being admitted to their college of choice.

With social networks, slidesharing, IM, video and more at their disposal, students are finding it easier to get homework help, attend seminars, and even learn new languages. And educators can connect at a global level to discuss lesson plans and offer seminars.

Although Twitter may not penetrate the classroom just yet, social media help students maintain an active social life beyond the classroom. One of the biggest myths about online education is that students will become socially inept. Instead, learning online allows students to study at their own pace, usually opening up hours for sports, hobbies, volunteer work, and time with friends. Most programs also allow students to study what interests them. Not that learning online is easier. In fact, quite the opposite: students require tremendous discipline and excellent time management skills, two qualities that Insight Schools uses to promote its program. Insight Schools operates a network of tuition-free, accredited, online public high schools. Students receive their own laptop, as well as personalized education tailored to their lifestyle.

One would imagine that high school and college students are more likely to take advantage of online programs, but homeschooling has existed as long as education has, so it's a viable option for those in younger grades as well. Some children have special needs and talents, others have disabilities or simply struggle in the class. Parents looking for an alternative to traditional schooling for their child now have options other than special classes, tutoring and expensive private schools. Online education offers students more one-on-one time with their instructors. And, as a bonus, most K-12 online programs are inexpensive or even tuition-free.

Guest author: Jodi Church, better known as tinythoughts, is a writer and social media enthusiast who has worked as an online communications manager for both Mister Wong and Lifestream.fm.

Speaking directly to this concern (or phenomenon, depending on your perspective), two students at the New York University Stern School of Business and a former MySpace IT director have started FledgeWing, a new social network that aims to connect aspiring student entrepreneurs with one another as well as with mentors, investors, and industry professionals.

Students present brief descriptions of their projects along with goals and objectives; the UI acts as a light project management, task-tracking app. Others may leave comments or request to join the project.

The case studies are presented as business challenges within the tech/social media world and range from the creation of a retail outlet for Microsoft to the development of a business model for Twitter. Students are encouraged to submit their case studies as comments, attaching any necessary documents to validate or clarify their POV.

The site also has been categorized by areas of interest; and different forums, students, mentors, and companies appear in each category.

Co-founder Lewis Drummond said his team is "bringing together the brightest and most creative minds during a time when then entire structure of business is changing.

"The site has a large database of mentors, companies, and jobs... FledgeWing also regularly hosts all-expenses paid networking events... along with business plan competitions with cash prizes. Entrepreneurial clubs can participate in and host forums, while a feedback-style rating system and comprehensive intellectual property agreement ensure quality control and legal protection for both users and club moderators. Additionally, clubs can create events and have a place for users to collaborate together on specific projects."

In addition to bridging the gap between professional and student entrepreneurialism, the site also intends to encourage more cooperation and collaboration between student entrepreneurs and supporting organizations at different universities.

We find the heavy emphasis on business (as opposed to straight tech) an interesting and valuable approach to the aforementioned structural changes going on in our industries. As we noted in a previous article on IT and journalism student collaboration, bringing different disciplines together with an emphasis on pragmatic creation and measurable action is sure to yield mutually beneficial results for all involved. In this case, from perusing the student projects and comments, we notice a trend toward bootstrappable startups - a welcome mindset in the current economy.

Fledgewing also represents a trend we've noticed toward project-driven social-professional networks that focus on active collaboration and partnership. IBM has recently launched two such sites, one for developers and one for business partners.

What do you think: Is this breed of social-political online groups a valuable networking tool that can lead to successful projects in reality? And is interdisciplinary collaboration the best route to better, more viable startups? Let us know your thoughts in the comments.

Interestingly, while student email is often outsourced, faculty and staff email is generally hosted in-house because of concerns over confidentiality. Only 2.3% of all schools outsource these systems to commercial vendors.

Schools, for the most part, aren't able to keep up with the speed of innovation on the web anyway, and the fact that many college-run email systems have fallen far behind the innovation curve has driven a lot of students to just forward their school email to a commercial account anyway.

Given the cost pressures that schools are under right now, the choice for these colleges is to either spend a lot of money on providing costly email systems that most students hardly ever look at, or to outsource them to a commercial vendor, or even to Google, which will happily offer these services for free.

Next Step: Get Rid of It

The logical next step, then, is to simply stop providing .edu email addresses to students - and a number of schools are actually considering this move. Last month, at The Chronicle of Higher Education's Technology Forum, Steven Zink of the University of Nevada in Reno announced that his campus plans to stop providing students with a college email system altogether.

Most colleges will probably continue to provide students with an official .edu email address, but this will just be used for forwarding mail to another account - something most students prefer over using their college email systems anyway.

In many ways, this makes a lot of sense. Schools won't give up email as their preferred way of communicating with students anytime soon, but the days when colleges provided the most important on-ramp to email and the Internet for their students are long over.

Universities such as Duke, Stanford, MIT, and the University of California, among others, already post videos online both to YouTube and in iTunes U, a section of iTunes featuring audio and video podcasts. However, what UNSW is doing is unique - they're providing college credit to those watching the YouTube recordings.

YouTube U

While there's really little difference between physically showing up in a classroom to sit and listen to a lecture and viewing a video of the same lecture, few universities have allowed this type of unstructured remote learning to count as college credit for those who are not already enrolled in the university. Instead, colleges that support distance learning initiatives usually require students to apply for admission and pay tuition, just as any other student attending classes on campus would have to.

The fact that Buckland is not charging the high school students who are remotely attending his courses but is still giving them college credit is what makes what he's doing so different...and perhaps groundbreaking.

The process of UNSW's "YouTube education" is not entirely without structure, though. Only a limited number of high school students are chosen each year for this opportunity. Those who wish to attend must submit a statement as well as an academic reference from a teacher. In other words, receiving college credit for watching the videos isn't something available to anyone, anywhere - there is still a selection process that is adhered to.

Higher Learning or Marketing Campaign?

Colleges who want to follow in UNSW's footsteps could easily take this idea and turn it into a recruiting or marketing campaign for their university. By offering high school students transferable college credits valid at their particular institution, they could encourage the brightest young students to consider their university over others long before it came time to fill out the admissions packet.

No matter what reason a college may have for pursuing this type of remote learning, giving students the chance to work ahead - and at no additional expense to them - is an idea that hopefully spreads to other institutions worldwide.

Half the students (32 of 64) skipped the class and listened to the podcast only. The other half attended in person, where they also received a printed handout. A week later, the students were tested on the material.

Podcast Listeners Did Better

The students who downloaded the podcast alone averaged a C (71 out of 100) but those who attended class averaged a D. And those who listened to the podcast and took notes did even better - their average was 77.

Before university classrooms empty out, it's important to note that this is only preliminary research. McKinney's study involved only a single lecture. Also, motivation may have come into play as well. Her experiment didn't count for class credit, so students were encouraged to participate with iTunes gift cards. The high scorer from each group was awarded a $15 gift certificate for use in the online store.

McKinney now plans to further study podcasts in the classroom over the course of an entire semester, instead of just one class. She wonders if students might find podcasts more useful early on in a class, when the material is still new. Still, McKinney is a big believer in the power of technology and its impact on education. "I do think it's a tool," she says. "I think that these kids are programmed differently than kids 20 years ago."